So, no place for Hodd. I hope the judges don't venture into Sherwood Forest any time soon! Indeed, it was probably not even among the 132 books they read (unless it was one of the eleven they called in) as Jonathan Cape obviously submitted The Quickening Maze and The Wilderness instead. To be fair, there were bound to be some tough choices in a year quite rightly described by BBC Radio 4's James Naughtie, who is chairing the judges this year, as exceptional. He also described the longlist as one of the strongest in recent memory. Certainly any year where a new Margaret Atwood novel doesn't make the longlist must be strong. The biggest surprise on the list has to be Me Cheeta - a fictional autobiography of Hollywood's most famous chimp - which is being mistakenly shelved among real showbiz autobiographies in libraries.

To celebrate the longlist announcement, the 2009 Man Booker Prize will be showcased as part of the One & Other project on the fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square, London. On Tuesday 11 August at 11am, a Man Booker Prize enthusiast will give readings from all 13 longlisted titles and then give away copies of the books. Please don't throw bananas when he reads from Me Cheeta. Ahhhhhhuhahuhahuhahhhhhh!

The shortlist will be announced on September 8th (for the benefit of the superstitious, that's the day before 9/9/9) and the winner on October 6th.

Sadly, Nottingham was also robbed of one of its finest literary talents on Saturday when Stanley Middleton died at the age of 89. Stanley was joint winner of the Booker Prize in 1974 for Holiday.

Monday, July 27, 2009

Annual Man Booker fog-knitting competition

The Man Booker Prize longlist will be announced on Tuesday, so it's crystal ball time again.

Predicting which novels the judges will select for their longlist is like trying to nail jelly to a wall, not least because those of us on the outside looking in never even know which books have been entered for the prize. After all, it wouldn't do for authors to find out that their publisher had chosen someone else ahead of them. Ego juggling is best done in private.

Even assessing the eligibility of an author can be tricky. I had a moment of doubt about Adam Thorpe recently when I found out that he was born in Paris and resides in France - especially when I realised, with some surprise, that he has never even been longlisted before. Helpfully though, Howard Davies specifically mentioned Thorpe's Between Each Breath in his speech at the ceremony two years ago, so Hodd should be in with a shot - if Jonathan Cape have submitted it that is. And 'if' is a big word. It also looks like an excellent year for literary fiction, so I'm expecting a really strong longlist, which may look something - or, more likely, nothing - like this: